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Can anyone help me locate a template?

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searcher1943

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Maryland

I am looking for a template or a court form to file a motion or to petition the court for a court order to release my juvenile court records to me, so that I may read them and get copies for my own personal information.

I am now nearly 64 years old. Way back when, (in 1961) when I was a teenager I ran away from home to excape an abusive situation. My parents reported me missing, I was found and arrested and sent through the juvenile court system. I was removed from my parents custody and placed in a home for girls, and described as an "incorrigible minor". (Today, the PARENTS would have been locked up, not the child!)

At any rate now that I am old, I am loking for some closure to an even that changed my entire life.

According too the laws in the State of Maryland (the juvenile court in question was in Baltimore City, Maryland) I can view and get copies of my juvenile court records, but only through a court order.

I have spoken to the Juvenile Court for Baltimore City about this. At first I was told to send all my information to the judge and he would make a determination if I could see the records. I did so. Then I spoke to the judge's clerk again and she told me that the judge had passed on my request to the Clerk of the Court, and that he would be able to help me.

Well, that clerk hemmed and hawed around for several years, with one excuse after another why he did not get the records. First he had people out on vacation. Then he broke his leg and said he could not get to the storage area to look for the records. Then he finally said he had PERSONALLY looked for my records and that neither in the juvenile court docket records, nor any other records did he find any record of my EVER having been through the juvenile courts.

I find this to be ludicrous. First, the idea that the Clerk of the Court would actually, personally, go to the file rooms to search for records is silly. Second, in one of my numerous phone calls to this guy he told me "I run this office, the judge does not run this office" as a reason why he had not instituted a search for my records.

So now I am wanting to try the only other option, to get a court order opening all my records. That way I can look at any records housed in the State Archives (they said at the Archives that I could have the records searched and view them, but I need a court order), and I am fairly sure that even the court docket records would be housed there. I have been doing genealogical research for a numbe of years and am very aware that court records are in existence from the time this country was a COLONY, so I am pretty sure the records from the 60's are there (also, the Archives web site tells what records are there, and the court records are listed as being there)

What I need is a form or a template to prepare either a petition to the court to release the records to me, or a motion to release the records. When I talked to aomsone in the Circuit Court in Baltimore, they thought that such forms were available in the courthouse, but later found that they are not.

I could hire an attorney, but my funds are very limited and it would cost upwards of $500 for an attorney just to prepare the papers. I can pay the court fees for filing, but do not have $500 to blow in for this.

To many people this must seem crazy. But to me it would help me greatly to be able to see, from the perspective of my age, exactly what was said and done at that tie so long ago.

If ANYONE has access to leagl forms samples or templates for either (or) a Petition to Release Juvenile Records, or a Motion to Release Juvenile REcords (Maryland) I would so greatly appreciate a link to the form or maybe even a copy emailed to me.


At that long ago time our entire family was split. I and my five siblings were taken away from our prents, and our family was just fractured and has never mended. If you can help me get some closure and maybe try to get a handle on what happened to us as children.

thanks

[email protected]
 


CdwJava

Senior Member
I don't know about a template, but I don't find it surprising at all that such records may no longer exist. If you call the court or the local bar association, they might be able to point you in the proper direction for the format of such a request.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that any hard copies of that 46 year old record no longer exist.

And I don't find it hard to believe that the records supervisor would look for such records - I know the records supervisor at our local court does, and I do for my agency. The law on public records being what they are, we need to produce them as soon as possible ... IF they can be located.

I do not know specifically about MD law, but in CA these documents could have been destroyed many years ago. This is probably the case in MD as well. Minor matters such as running away are no something they would very well keep a record of. You can contact the police agency taking the report and making any arrest and see if they have such a record, but I know that in my agency we would have destroyed those records a couple decades ago. There just is no reason to save those things.

So, go ahead and make a written request, but if MD public records laws are similar to the other states and the federal FOIA (and most are), they are not required to produce records they do not possess or cannot locate.

- Carl
 

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